We are extremely proud to announce that our inquest solicitor Ruth Bundey, is to be named on the Women of Leeds Sculpture.
Nearly 400 inspirational Leeds women, voted for by members of the public, are being celebrated with a new sculpture in the heart of the city’s cultural quarter. Created by artist, Pippa Hale, ‘Ribbons’ will be located at the top of the gardens between Leeds City College’s Quarry Hill campus and Leeds Playhouse at the gateway to the SOYO development at Quarry Hill, from October 2024.
Ruth first came to Leeds to work for the then Race Relations Board, investigating complaints of racial discrimination. She grew frustrated with the lack of teeth this organisation had and was often referring people to lawyers to obtain justice. She then retrained in law and did her articles with Howard Cohen qualifying as a solicitor in 1980, which just happens to be the year I was born.
She spent time working in immigration, having sleepless nights, again frustrated by the inhumanity of the Immigration Rules and the harshness of their decision-making. She then set up her own practice and represented the Bradford 12 in 1982 where 12 young Asians were acquitted of conspiracy to endanger life on the basis of their legal right to act in self-defence to protect their community.
She was involved in the judicial review following the death of nurse Helen Smith in Jeddah, which established for the first time the duty of a coroner to hold an inquest into the death of a British citizen abroad.
She won the Yorkshire Legal Award for Criminal Law in 2004. More recently Ruth was heavily involved in obtaining justice for the Hillsborough Disaster victims and has also been a patron of the David Oluwale Memorial Association (DOMA) for some years. She also volunteers for the Good Samaritans and is on the board of trustees for the charity INQUEST.
In more recent years her main area of work concerns inquests into deaths in custody.
Ruth’s client care skills are second to none, she cares deeply about her clients and the families she represents and always ensures that their voices and concerns are heard.
She truly is an inspirational woman and a very deserving inclusion into this wonderful concept to celebrate the inspirational women of Leeds.
